After a summer break, Percy and I are back with a fresh season of Craft Politics, and this week’s returning guest is a fan favourite.
Ten days ago Ginny Roth posted a thread arguing that Canadians need to stop being shocked by Donald Trump and start making hard choices from a weak hand. Jason Kenney replied, accusing her of “craven cynicism masquerading as hard-headed realism.” And now the Canadian right is having it out, complete with name-calling (Maple MAGA? Really?)
So we brought Ginny on to make the argument herself.
Ginny is a partner at Crestview Strategy, was director of communications for Pierre Poilievre’s 2022 leadership campaign, and writes for The Hub and the National Post.
What we got into:
The magic politics button. There’s a button every incumbent in the country can press right now — attack Trump, elbows up — and it converts straight into public support. Her worry is what that does to the decisions they’re supposed to be making.
We were closer to a deal than you think. And when it fell apart, you could see which pundits were quietly relieved.
What she’s actually afraid of. Ten years from now, the politics of this moment will have passed and we’ll want open markets back. Ginny isn’t sure the public support will still be there. NAFTA was hard fought the first time.
The age split running through this. If you’re established and 55-plus, this trade war costs you very little. If you’re 40 and can’t buy a house, you pay for it twice. Ginny says it maps almost exactly onto the conservative infighting.
Draw a hard line on the right. The takeaway that surprised me most — the answer for Poilievre and Badenoch isn’t running to the middle. It’s being clear about what they won’t talk about, and admitting nobody on the right plays the role Buckley played anymore.
Andrew on the mushy middle. His phrase, and he means a coalition where nobody gets everything — with lines on the right you don’t cross, same as the ones on the left.
Also discussed: whether Canadians are being sold a pup on replacing the American market, what Kenney took from COVID, why Ginny doubts half the MAGA accounts in her mentions are real people, Andrew’s proposed impurity test, and the ostriches — who did nothing wrong except get bird flu.
Find Ginny at The Hub and the National Post, and on X @GinnyRothTO.
Craft Politics is a cross-border, Canada-UK political podcast, hosted by former UK MP Andrew Percy, and former political staffer, Joseph Lavoie.